The Knowledge

Which is the toughest memory test in the world?

This morning, I happend to pick up a black cab for the last leg of the journey to work. Since there were traffic snarls and signals, happend to talk to the driver.[He strictly dint talk when the vehicle was moving or when he had to concentrate].

I had earlier heard about The Knowledge,[the answer for the earlier question, that is the qualifying exam for london taxi drivers.] and wanted to hear from the horse's mouth. Here is what it is,
The names and exact locations of the 25000 streets in london and the 1400 locations of interests have to be remembered!! Tough? Now hear this, the shortest distance between all of these will also have to be remembered. Anybody to calculate the combinations??

Typcially, it takes about 3 to 4 years for learning this completely. If the student is highly proficient and spends all time into this, it can be done in 2 to 3 years.

And wait, this is what Wikepedia had to tell me 'There is some evidence that doing The Knowledge can result in measurable physical changes in the brain of a potential cab driver'!! Physical changes in the brain!!

I asked my driver how does he look at the streets of london. He said, he has a perfect map on his mind with each and evey landmark and street name marked in it. Everytime he drives through the city, he feels like moving a finger over the map.

There are other strict rules for getting the GreenBadge[the license for london taxi driver].

So much for the power of the human brain. I asked him if he has used the GPS products. He said they are very slow!!!

Equally strict are the rules regarding the make of the cabs. They are so strict that, one company in Conventy specially makes them. One of those regulations is that the vehicle should have a 25feet turning circle.!!

How nice, if we had similar rules for taxis and autos in namma ooru.!!

BBC article on brain growth
Scientific American frontier on 'The Knowledge'